Australia's fastest-spreading viral video, "Dumb Ways to Die", has taken on a life of its own, inspiring more than 65 cover versions, 85 parodies and 170 re-posts on YouTube.

The original clip, made to promote safety on Melbourne Metro Trains, has amassed more than 28 million views on YouTube since it was posted on November 14.

Its creator, ad agency McCann Worldgroup Australia, said its “conservative” estimate was that the campaign had generated $50 million in "global-earned media value" so far, in addition to more than 700 press hits.

The song has got young people talking - and singing - about train safety.

Mescall wrote the lyrics of the original song and brought in Ollie McGill, the keyboardist from Cat Empire, to write the music, as well as a freelancer Julian Frost to complete the animation. Melbourne-based Emily Lubitz of Tinpan Orange did the singing.

Perhaps illustrating why commercial TV networks are in such a poor state, Mescall said he spent "a fraction of the cost of one TV ad", but created something that will live on long after the campaign is over.

“A lot of paid advertising campaigns die the moment you stop spending money, whereas this is going to be in people's playlists for quite a while now,” he said, adding TV networks had to re-think their controlled approach.

It even inspired a cover by a traditional Malaysian musical group.

“The old model of broadcasting and creating fixed content that people will just sit and watch at your behest is dead ... The things that we were promised from the internet 5 to 10 years ago [around democratising content] I think are now finally starting to come true.”

Mescall said ultimately the success of the campaign was getting young people talking – and evidently even singing – about rail safety.

“People, especially younger people, hate being told what to do, and what's really interesting about this work is it never tells you not to do it ... It almost introduces shame and peer pressure into the equation.”

A grab from the "Cool Things to Find" parody.

His other ingredients for viral success include making it non-specific to Australia (for example, by deliberately including grizzly bears and piranha), coming up with a "ridiculously catchy tune", not preaching, and utilising web tools such as Tumblr, Pinterest and Reddit to spread the word.

“We were sitting around the office with the song stuck in our heads when we decided we needed to make a version of our own,” said Cinesaurus executive producer Forest Gibson.

The original Dumb Ways to Die clip has amassed over 28 million views on YouTube since it was posted on November 14.

Cinesaurus came up with the idea last Wednesday evening and spent Thanksgiving making it. “All in all, it took us six days and 250 man hours to create,” said Gibson.

Ultimately, Mescall says the secret to viral success for brands is creating an ad that doesn't look like an ad, because unless you're a brand like Nike with millions to spend on a single ad, “no one shares advertising".

"We took a serious safety message and we snuck up on people with it, we didn't hit them over the head ... it's dark humour delivered with joy, which almost always works but there's not enough of it in advertising," Mescall said.

"I think people, when they see the Metro message at the end, they're actually genuinely surprised – 'Shit, you mean a company did this?' – which kind of helps the spread of it too.

“Normally, we're mostly reviled for the content we make [in advertising], but times change."

61 comments

Thanks for keeping us up to date on the latest Internet News, FXJ. Because how many hits a video has on YouTube and how many parody videos have been uploaded is important stuff.

Next, can we please have some feedback on how many cats have lol'd this week?

Cheers.

Commenter

alexbeare

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 10:38AM

Grandpa, social media is a legitimate tool that does impact on people's thoughts and decisions. For public awareness campaigns like this, being able to measure the views and responses is a good measure of the campaign's impact.

Commenter

pb

Location

sydney

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 11:02AM

I think it's hideous. It's a direct insult to every person who has ever died because on the tracks of trains.

Metro is also shirking some responsibility here?

It's gross. Completely insensitive.

Commenter

sarajane

Location

melbourne

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 11:06AM

alexbeare, of course it's news. I accept that it's not of interest to you, but that doesn't change anything. The fact is that ads for train safety have consistently flopped, but trying a different approach has engaged its target audience. Whether it delivers the desired results remains to be seen, but if it does, that will also be news.

In case you didn't catch on, this is about saving young people's lives. Anything that helps get through to the target audience is unquestionably of interest to some. Just not you.

Commenter

Phil

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 11:08AM

Hey, now, it's always nice when the media is reporting on important news affairs. Word crises? Recession? Civil wars? Who needs to know about those when we have a video that's gone viral!?!

Commenter

J

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 11:09AM

It's like I'm the only one in the room who isn't brainwashed.

Guys !! Hello!!

I bet you'll find the death rate increased after they got rid of station masters, and conductors.

Melbourne's public transport is unsafe for a number of reasons: Not just because of a few "dumb" people.

It makes me sick.

Commenter

sarajane

Location

melbourne

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 11:13AM

....almost as important as spending precious time to complain about the story.

Commenter

Bushbasher

Location

Greensborough 7 Eleven

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 11:13AM

Why must someone always post a comment such as alexbeare when an article like this appears? Don't like it, don't read it!

What may not be of interest to you, may be of interest to others...

Commenter

NewsHound

Location

Work

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 11:14AM

I can report that my own cats have lol'd several times this week, but I lost count at about 356.

Commenter

Malik the magic sheep

Date and time

November 29, 2012, 11:16AM

@pb

"...social media is a legitimate tool that does impact on people's thoughts and decisions."